Methods and systems for per pixel alpha-blending of a parent window and a portion of a background image

ABSTRACT

A system for alpha blending at least a portion of an image of a window with a background image, where the image of the window is captured by an alpha blender and blended together with an image of the background also captured by the alpha blender. The resulting alpha-blended image is then displayed within the window to give at least a portion of the window the appearance of smooth, anti-aliased edges.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This U.S. patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/095,610, filed on Sep. 9, 2008, the disclosureof which is considered part of the disclosure of this application and isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This application generally relates to methods and systems foralpha-blending images. In particular, this application relates tomethods and systems for alpha-blending a window and a portion of abackground image.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Newer operating systems often times feature transparent window bordersand in some cases transparent windows. Window transparency can ofteninterfere with alpha-blending because of the difficulties posed bytrying to alpha-blend an image to the desktop. In fact, mostalpha-blending techniques do not interact with the desktop or otherwindows, but rather alpha blend two images. Therefore it can bedifficult to anti-alias the corners of windows so that they appearsmooth when contrasted against a background or other windows.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure describes methods and systems for alpha-blending awindow to a background image that can comprise any of the following: adesktop; one or more additional windows; an image; or any other object.Alpha-blending techniques typically cannot be used to alpha-blend onewindow to another window. Furthermore, alpha-blending techniquestypically cannot be used to alpha-blend one window to a desktop. Themethods and systems described herein address these deficiencies byproviding methods and systems for alpha blending at least portions of awindow to a background image which can contain an image of a desktop oran image of a window.

In one aspect, described herein, is an embodiment of a method foralpha-blending sections of a window with sections of a backgroundregion. A window manager executing on a computing machine, obtains thecoordinates of a window located over a background region. Analpha-blender executing on the computing machine captures the windowoverlapping at least a portion of the captured background region image,and then alpha-blends the image of the window with a section of thebackground region image to generate a third image. A rendering agentexecuting on the computing machine then displays the third image withinthe window.

In one embodiment, the alpha blender can capture an image of thebackground region, where the size of the image is derived from theobtained window coordinates.

In other embodiments, the alpha-blender captures an image of thebackground region where the window wholly overlaps the background regionimage.

In one embodiments, the alpha-blender captures an image of the window,while in other embodiments the alpha-blender captures the image of abackground region comprising a desktop, and/or the alpha-blendercaptures an image of a background region comprising at least a secondwindow.

The alpha-blender, in some embodiments, captures an image of thebackground region where the background region image has a size and alocation determined using the obtained window coordinates. In stillother embodiments, the alpha-blender alpha-blends an image of a portionof the window.

In one embodiment, the alpha-blender determines a first pixel in thewindow image that includes a first alpha channel value, and a secondpixel in the section of the background image that includes a secondalpha channel value where the first alpha channel value is differentthan the second alpha channel value. The alpha-blender then selects oneof the first alpha channel value and the second alpha channel value andincludes the selected alpha channel value in the generated third image.

The rendering agent, in some embodiments, displays the third imagewithin a background of the window.

In another aspect, described herein is a system for alpha-blendingsections of a window with sections of a background region. Included inthe system is a computing machine comprising a processor and memory, anda window manager executing on a computing machine to obtain coordinatesof a window located over a background region. Also included in thesystem is an alpha-blender executing on the computing machine to capturean image of the background region, the window overlapping at least aportion of the captured background region image, and alpha-blend animage of the window with a section of the background region image togenerate a third image. Still further included is a rendering agentexecuting on the computing machine to display the third image within thewindow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following figures depict certain illustrative embodiments of amethod and system for per pixel alpha blending of a parent window to adesktop, where like reference numerals refer to like elements. Eachdepicted embodiment is illustrative of the method and system and notlimiting.

FIG. 1A depicts embodiments of network environments that provide remoteaccess to computing devices that can execute application programs.

FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C depict embodiments of computing devices.

FIG. 1D illustrates a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a serverfarm.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of an alpha blendingsystem.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of an alpha blendedwindow.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of an alpha blendedwindow.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment for alpha blending aparent window to a background image.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In some environments involving graphics processing, two or more imagesmay be merged together to produce a composite image. In one of theseenvironments, a technique may be employed to create an appearance ofpartial transparency where some or all of one image is visuallysuperimposed over a second image, while the occluded portion of thesecond image remains partially discernable in the composite image. Oneprocess for producing such a transparency effect is referred to asalpha-blending, or alpha-compositing.

In some embodiments, alpha-blending in the area of computer graphicstypically involves an alpha-channel value (α), ranging from 0 to 255. Inone of the embodiments, a value of 0 represents full transparencywhereas a value of 255 indicates complete opaqueness when applied to animage or a pixel. In other embodiments, taking a pixel of an bitmapimage expressed in RGB triplets for example, where R, G and B representsthe red, green and blues color intensities respectively, the pixel istypically represented as (R, G, B). An alpha-channel may be added to thepixel, so that the pixel is now represented as an RGBA quartet—(R, G, B,α). In further embodiments, when a first pixel (R, G, B, α) of a firstimage with an alpha-channel is “super-imposed over” a second pixel (r,g, b) of a second image without an alpha-channel, the composite imagewill then become((αR+(255−α)r)/255, (αG+(255−α) g)/255, (αB+(255−α) b)/255).

In one embodiment, the resulting visual effect is a partiallytransparent first pixel on top of the second pixel. In anotherembodiment, the alpha-blending process can be extended to additionalpixels of the two images super-imposed over each other.

Alpha-blending may be applied to bitmap images or any image representedby pixels or similar discrete elements. A bitmap may also be referred toas a pixmap. Examples of image file formats using bitmap are BMP andMICROSOFT DIB. Many other image file formats, such as TIFF, PNG, JPEGand GIF store bitmap images but may additionally apply compression forefficient storage. Other non-bitmap image file formats may also supportalpha-blending. Portions of bitmap images, down to each discreteelement, may be characterized by their own distinct α value. Therefore,generally, any bitmap image associated with any object in anobject-oriented programming environment may be alpha-blended to anotherbitmap image.

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a computing environment thatincludes one or more client machines 102A-102N in communication withservers 106A-106N, and a network 104 installed in between the clientmachines 102A-102N and the servers 106A-106N. In some embodiments,client machines 102A-10N may be referred to as a single client machine102 or a single group of client machines 102, while servers may bereferred to as a single server 106 or a single group of servers 106. Oneembodiment includes a single client machine 102 communicating with morethan one server 106, another embodiment includes a single server 106communicating with more than one client machine 102, while anotherembodiment includes a single client machine 102 communicating with asingle server 106.

A client machine 102 within the computing environment may in someembodiments, be referenced by any one of the following terms: clientmachine(s) 102; client(s); client computer(s); client device(s); clientcomputing device(s); local machine; remote machine; client node(s);endpoint(s); endpoint node(s); or a second machine. The server 106 insome embodiments may be referenced by any one of the following terms:server(s), local machine; remote machine; server farm(s), host computingdevice(s), or a first machine(s).

The client machine 102 can in some embodiments execute, operate orotherwise provide an application that can be any one of the following:software; a program; executable instructions; a web browser; a web-basedclient; a client-server application; a thin-client computing client; anActiveX control; a Java applet; software related to voice over internetprotocol (VoIP) communications like a soft IP telephone; an applicationfor streaming video and/or audio; an application for facilitatingreal-time-data communications; a HTTP client; a FTP client; an Oscarclient; a Telnet client; or any other type and/or form of executableinstructions capable of executing on client machine 102. Still otherembodiments may include a computing environment with an application thatis any of either server-based or remote-based, and an application thatis executed on the server 106 on behalf of the client machine 102.Further embodiments of the computing environment include a server 106configured to display output graphical data to a client machine 102using a thin-client or remote-display protocol, where the protocol usedcan be any one of the following protocols: the Independent ComputingArchitecture (ICA) protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft.Lauderdale, Fla.; or the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured bythe Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

In one embodiment, the client machine 102 can be a virtual machine 102Csuch as those manufactured by XenSolutions, Citrix Systems, IBM, VMware,or any other virtual machine able to implement the methods and systemsdescribed herein.

The computing environment can, in some embodiments, include more thanone server 106A-106N where the servers 106A-106N are: grouped togetheras a single server 106 entity, logically-grouped together in a serverfarm 106; geographically dispersed and logically grouped together in aserver farm 106, located proximate to each other and logically groupedtogether in a server farm 106. Geographically dispersed servers106A-106N within a server farm 106 can, in some embodiments, communicateusing a WAN, MAN, or LAN, where different geographic regions can becharacterized as: different continents; different regions of acontinent; different countries; different states; different cities;different campuses; different rooms; or any combination of the precedinggeographical locations. In some embodiments the server farm 106 may beadministered as a single entity or in other embodiments may includemultiple server farms 106. The computing environment can include morethan one server 106A-106N grouped together in a single server farm 106where the server farm 106 is heterogeneous such that one server106A-106N is configured to operate according to a first type ofoperating system platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by MicrosoftCorp. of Redmond, Wash.), while one or more other servers 106A-106N areconfigured to operate according to a second type of operating systemplatform (e.g., Unix or Linux); more than one server 106A-106N isconfigured to operate according to a first type of operating systemplatform (e.g., WINDOWS NT), while another server 106A-106N isconfigured to operate according to a second type of operating systemplatform (e.g., Unix or Linux); or more than one server 106A-106N isconfigured to operate according to a first type of operating systemplatform (e.g., WINDOWS NT) while more than one of the other servers106A-106N are configured to operate according to a second type ofoperating system platform (e.g., Unix or Linux).

The computing environment can in some embodiments include a server 106or more than one server 106 configured to provide the functionality ofany one of the following server types: a file server; an applicationserver; a web server; a proxy server; an appliance; a network appliance;a gateway; an application gateway; a gateway server; a virtualizationserver; a deployment server; a SSL VPN server; a firewall; a web server;an application server or as a master application server; a server 106configured to operate as an active direction; a server 106 configured tooperate as application acceleration application that provides firewallfunctionality, application functionality, or load balancingfunctionality, or other type of computing machine configured to operateas a server 106. In some embodiments, a server 106 may include a remoteauthentication dial-in user service such that the server 106 is a RADIUSserver. Embodiments of the computing environment where the server 106comprises an appliance, the server 106 can be an appliance manufacturedby any one of the following manufacturers: the Citrix ApplicationNetworking Group; Silver Peak Systems, Inc; Riverbed Technology, Inc.;F5 Networks, Inc.; or Juniper Networks, Inc. Some embodiments include aserver 106 with the following functionality: a first server 106A thatreceives requests from a client machine 102, forwards the request to asecond server 106B, and responds to the request generated by the clientmachine with a response from the second server 106B; acquires anenumeration of applications available to the client machines 102 andaddress information associated with a server 106 hosting an applicationidentified by the enumeration of applications; presents responses toclient requests using a web interface; communicates directly with theclient 102 to provide the client 102 with access to an identifiedapplication; receives output data, such as display data, generated by anexecution of an identified application on the server 106.

The server 106 can be configured to execute any one of the followingapplications: an application providing a thin-client computing or aremote display presentation application; any portion of the CITRIXACCESS SUITE by Citrix Systems, Inc. like the METAFRAME or CITRIXPRESENTATION SERVER; MICROSOFT WINDOWS Terminal Services manufactured bythe Microsoft Corporation; or an ICA client, developed by CitrixSystems, Inc. Another embodiment includes a server 106 configured toexecute an application so that the server may function as an applicationserver such as any one of the following application server types: anemail server that provides email services such as MICROSOFT EXCHANGEmanufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; a web or Internet server; adesktop sharing server; or a collaboration server. Still otherembodiments include a server 106 that executes an application that isany one of the following types of hosted servers applications:GOTOMEETING provided by Citrix Online Division, Inc.; WEBEX provided byWebEx, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.; or Microsoft Office LIVE MEETINGprovided by Microsoft Corporation.

In one embodiment, the server 106 may be a virtual machine 106B such asthose manufactured by Citrix Systems, IBM, VMware, or any other virtualmachine able to implement the methods and systems described herein.

Client machines 102 may function, in some embodiments, as a client nodeseeking access to resources provided by a server 106, or as a server 106providing other clients 102A-102N with access to hosted resources. Oneembodiment of the computing environment includes a server 106 thatprovides the functionality of a master node. Communication between theclient machine 102 and either a server 106 or servers 106A-106N can beestablished via any of the following methods: direct communicationbetween a client machine 102 and a server 106A-106N in a server farm106; a client machine 102 that uses a program neighborhood applicationto communicate with a server 106 a-106 n in a server farm 106; or aclient machine 102 that uses a network 104 to communicate with a server106A-106N in a server farm 106. One embodiment of the computingenvironment includes a client machine 102 that uses a network 104 torequest that applications hosted by a server 106A-106N in a server farm106 execute, and uses the network 104 to receive from the server106A-106N graphical display output representative of the applicationexecution. In other embodiments, a master node provides thefunctionality required to identify and provide address informationassociated with a server 106 hosting a requested application. Stillother embodiments include a master node that can be any one of thefollowing: a server 106A-106N within the server farm 106; a remotecomputing machine connected to the server farm 106 but not includedwithin the server farm 106; a remote computing machine connected to aclient 102 but not included within a group of client machines 102; or aclient machine 102.

The network 104 between the client machine 102 and the server 106 is aconnection over which data is transferred between the client machine 102and the server 106. In some embodiments, the connection between theclient 102 and the server 106 can be multiple connections. Although theillustration in FIG. 1A depicts a network 104 connecting the clientmachines 102 to the servers 106, other embodiments include a computingenvironment with client machines 102 installed on the same network asthe servers 106. Other embodiments can include a computing environmentwith a network 104 that can be any of the following: a local-areanetwork (LAN); a metropolitan area network (MAN); a wide area network(WAN); a primary network 104 comprised of multiple sub-networks 104′located between the client machines 102 and the servers 106; a primarypublic network 104 with a private sub-network 104′; a primary privatenetwork 104 with a public sub-network 104′; or a primary private network104 with a private sub-network 104′. Still further embodiments include anetwork 104 that can be any of the following network types: a point topoint network; a broadcast network; a telecommunications network; a datacommunication network; a computer network; an ATM (Asynchronous TransferMode) network; a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network; a SDH(Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network; a wireless network; a wirelinenetwork; a network 104 that includes a wireless link where the wirelesslink can be an infrared channel or satellite band; or any other networktype able to transfer data from client machines 102 to servers 106 andvice versa to accomplish the methods and systems described herein.Network topology may differ within different embodiments, possiblenetwork topologies include: a bus network topology; a star networktopology; a ring network topology; a repeater-based network topology; atiered-star network topology; or any other network topology abletransfer data from client machines 102 to servers 106, and vice versa,to accomplish the methods and systems described herein. Additionalembodiments may include a network 104 of mobile telephone networks thatuse a protocol to communicate among mobile devices, where the protocolcan be any one of the following: AMPS; TDMA; CDMA; GSM; GPRS UMTS; orany other protocol able to transmit data among mobile devices toaccomplish the systems and methods described herein.

Illustrated in FIG. 1B is an embodiment of a computing device 100, wherethe client machine 102 and server 106 illustrated in FIG. 1A can bedeployed as and/or executed on any embodiment of the computing device100 illustrated and described herein. Included within the computingdevice 100 is a system bus 150 that communicates with the followingcomponents: a central processing unit 121; a main memory 122; storagememory 128; an input/output (I/O) controller 123; display devices124A-124N; an installation device 116; and a network interface 118. Inone embodiment, the storage memory 128 includes: an operating system,software routines, and a client agent 120. The I/O controller 123, insome embodiments, is further connected to a key board 126, and apointing device 127. Other embodiments may include an I/O controller 123connected to more than one input/output device 130A-130N.

FIG. 1C illustrates one embodiment of a computing device 100, where theclient machine 102 and server 106 illustrated in FIG. 1A can be deployedas and/or executed on any embodiment of the computing device 100illustrated and described herein. Included within the computing device100 is a system bus 150 that communicates with the following components:a bridge 170, and a first I/0 device 130A. In another embodiment, thebridge 170 is in further communication with the central processing unit121, where the central processing unit 121 can further communicate witha second I/O device 130B, a main memory 122, and a cache memory 140.Included within the central processing unit 121, are I/O ports, a memoryport 103, and a main processor.

Embodiments of the computing machine 100 can include a centralprocessing unit 121 characterized by any one of the following componentconfigurations: logic circuits that respond to and process instructionsfetched from the main memory unit 122; a microprocessor unit, such as:those manufactured by Intel Corporation; those manufactured by MotorolaCorporation; those manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of Santa Clara,Calif.; the RS/6000 processor such as those manufactured byInternational Business Machines; a processor such as those manufacturedby Advanced Micro Devices; or any other combination of logic circuitscapable of executing the systems and methods described herein. Stillother embodiments of the central processing unit 122 may include anycombination of the following: a microprocessor, a microcontroller, acentral processing unit with a single processing core, a centralprocessing unit with two processing cores, or a central processing unitwith more than one processing cores.

One embodiment of the computing machine 100 includes a centralprocessing unit 121 that communicates with cache memory 140 via asecondary bus also known as a backside bus, while another embodiment ofthe computing machine 100 includes a central processing unit 121 thatcommunicates with cache memory via the system bus 150. The local systembus 150 can, in some embodiments, also be used by the central processingunit to communicate with more than one type of I/O devices 130A-130N. Insome embodiments, the local system bus 150 can be any one of thefollowing types of buses: a VESA VL bus; an ISA bus; an EISA bus; aMicroChannel Architecture (MCA) bus; a PCI bus; a PCI-X bus; aPCI-Express bus; or a NuBus. Other embodiments of the computing machine100 include an I/O device 130A-130N that is a video display 124 thatcommunicates with the central processing unit 121 via an AdvancedGraphics Port (AGP). Still other versions of the computing machine 100include a processor 121 connected to an I/O device 130A-130N via any oneof the following connections: HyperTransport, Rapid I/O, or InfiniBand.Further embodiments of the computing machine 100 include a communicationconnection where the processor 121 communicates with one I/O device 130Ausing a local interconnect bus and with a second I/O device 130B using adirect connection.

Included within some embodiments of the computing device 100 is each ofa main memory unit 122 and cache memory 140. The cache memory 140 willin some embodiments be any one of the following types of memory: SRAM;BSRAM; or EDRAM. Other embodiments include cache memory 140 and a mainmemory unit 122 that can be any one of the following types of memory:Static random access memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM(BSRAM), Dynamic random access memory (DRAM), Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPMDRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM),Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), Burst Extended Data Output DRAM(BEDO DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), JEDECSRAM, PC100 SDRAM, Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM(ESDRAM), SyncLink DRAM (SLDRAM), Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM),Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), or any other type of memory device capable ofexecuting the systems and methods described herein. The main memory unit122 and/or the cache memory 140 can in some embodiments include one ormore memory devices capable of storing data and allowing any storagelocation to be directly accessed by the central processing unit 121.Further embodiments include a central processing unit 121 that canaccess the main memory 122 via one of either: a system bus 150; a memoryport 103; or any other connection, bus or port that allows the processor121 to access memory 122.

One embodiment of the computing device 100 provides support for any oneof the following installation devices 116: a floppy disk drive forreceiving floppy disks such as 3.5-inch, 5.25-inch disks or ZIP disks, aCD-ROM drive, a CD-R/RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, tape drives of variousformats, USB device, a bootable medium, a bootable CD, a bootable CD forGNU/Linux distribution such as KNOPPIX®, a hard-drive or any otherdevice suitable for installing applications or software. Applicationscan in some embodiments include a client agent 120, or any portion of aclient agent 120. The computing device 100 may further include a storagedevice 128 that can be either one or more hard disk drives, or one ormore redundant arrays of independent disks; where the storage device isconfigured to store an operating system, software, programsapplications, or at least a portion of the client agent 120. A furtherembodiment of the computing device 100 includes an installation device116 that is used as the storage device 128.

Furthermore, the computing device 100 may include a network interface118 to interface to a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN)or the Internet through a variety of connections including, but notlimited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links (e.g., 802.11,T1, T3, 56kb, X.25, SNA, DECNET), broadband connections (e.g., ISDN,Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet-over-SONET), wirelessconnections, or some combination of any or all of the above. Connectionscan also be established using a variety of communication protocols(e.g., TCP/IP, IPX, SPX, NetBIOS, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, FiberDistributed Data Interface (FDDI), RS232, RS485, IEEE 802.11, IEEE802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, CDMA, GSM, WiMax and directasynchronous connections). One version of the computing device 100includes a network interface 118 able to communicate with additionalcomputing devices 100′ via any type and/or form of gateway or tunnelingprotocol such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security(TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems,Inc. Versions of the network interface 118 can comprise any one of: abuilt-in network adapter; a network interface card; a PCMCIA networkcard; a card bus network adapter; a wireless network adapter; a USBnetwork adapter; a modem; or any other device suitable for interfacingthe computing device 100 to a network capable of communicating andperforming the methods and systems described herein.

Embodiments of the computing device 100 include any one of the followingI/O devices 130A-130N: a keyboard 126; a pointing device 127; mice;trackpads; an optical pen; trackballs; microphones; drawing tablets;video displays; speakers; inkjet printers; laser printers; anddye-sublimation printers; or any other input/output device able toperform the methods and systems described herein. An I/O controller 123may in some embodiments connect to multiple I/O devices 103A-130N tocontrol the one or more I/O devices. Some embodiments of the I/O devices130A-130N may be configured to provide storage or an installation medium116, while others may provide a universal serial bus (USB) interface forreceiving USB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line ofdevices manufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. Still other embodimentsof an I/O device 130 may be a bridge between the system bus 150 and anexternal communication bus, such as: a USB bus; an Apple Desktop Bus; anRS-232 serial connection; a SCSI bus; a FireWire bus; a FireWire 800bus; an Ethernet bus; an AppleTalk bus; a Gigabit Ethernet bus; anAsynchronous Transfer Mode bus; a HIPPI bus; a Super HIPPI bus; aSerialPlus bus; a SCI/LAMP bus; a FibreChannel bus; or a Serial Attachedsmall computer system interface bus.

In some embodiments, the computing machine 100 can connect to multipledisplay devices 124A-124N, in other embodiments the computing device 100can connect to a single display device 124, while in still otherembodiments the computing device 100 connects to display devices124A-124N that are the same type or form of display, or to displaydevices that are different types or forms. Embodiments of the displaydevices 124A-124N can be supported and enabled by the following: one ormultiple I/O devices 130A-130N; the I/O controller 123; a combination ofI/O device(s) 130A-130N and the I/O controller 123; any combination ofhardware and software able to support a display device 124A-124N; anytype and/or form of video adapter, video card, driver, and/or library tointerface, communicate, connect or otherwise use the display devices 124a-124 n. The computing device 100 may in some embodiments be configuredto use one or multiple display devices 124A-124N, these configurationsinclude: having multiple connectors to interface to multiple displaydevices 124 a-124 n; having multiple video adapters, with each videoadapter connected to one or more of the display devices 124A-124N;having an operating system configured to support multiple displays124A-124N; using circuits and software included within the computingdevice 100 to connect to and use multiple display devices 124A-124N; andexecuting software on the main computing device 100 and multiplesecondary computing devices to enable the main computing device 100 touse a secondary computing device's display as a display device 124A-124Nfor the main computing device 100. Still other embodiments of thecomputing device 100 may include multiple display devices 124A-124Nprovided by multiple secondary computing devices and connected to themain computing device 100 via a network.

In some embodiments of the computing machine 100, an operating systemmay be included to control task scheduling and access to systemresources. Embodiments of the computing device 100 can run any one ofthe following operation systems: versions of the MICROSOFT WINDOWSoperating systems such as WINDOWS 3.x; WINDOWS 95; WINDOWS 98; WINDOWS2000; WINDOWS NT 3.51; WINDOWS NT 4.0; WINDOWS CE; WINDOWS XP; andWINDOWS VISTA; the different releases of the Unix and Linux operatingsystems; any version of the MAC OS manufactured by Apple Computer; OS/2,manufactured by International Business Machines; any embedded operatingsystem; any real-time operating system; any open source operatingsystem; any proprietary operating system; any operating systems formobile computing devices; or any other operating system capable ofrunning on the computing device and performing the operations describedherein. One embodiment of the computing machine 100 has multipleoperating systems installed thereon.

The computing machine 100 can be embodied in any one of the followingcomputing devices: a computing workstation; a desktop computer; a laptopor notebook computer; a server; a handheld computer; a mobile telephone;a portable telecommunication device; a media playing device; a gamingsystem; a mobile computing device; a device of the IPOD family ofdevices manufactured by Apple Computer; any one of the PLAYSTATIONfamily of devices manufactured by the Sony Corporation; any one of theNintendo family of devices manufactured by Nintendo Co; any one of theXBOX family of devices manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; or anyother type and/or form of computing, telecommunications or media devicethat is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor powerand memory capacity to perform the methods and systems described herein.In other embodiments the computing machine 100 can be a mobile devicesuch as any one of the following mobile devices: a JAVA-enabled cellulartelephone or personal digital assistant (PDA), such as the i55sr, i58sr,i85s, i88s, i90c, i95cl, or the im1100, all of which are manufactured byMotorola Corp; the 6035 or the 7135, manufactured by Kyocera; the i300or i330, manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd; the TREO 180,270, 600, 650, 680, 700p, 700w, or 750 smart phone manufactured by Palm,Inc; any computing device that has different processors, operatingsystems, and input devices consistent with the device; or any othermobile computing device capable of performing the methods and systemsdescribed herein. Still other embodiments of the computing environmentinclude a mobile computing device 100 that can be any one of thefollowing: any one series of Blackberry, or other handheld devicemanufactured by Research In Motion Limited; the iPhone manufactured byApple Computer; any handheld or smart phone; a Pocket PC; a Pocket PCPhone; or any other handheld mobile device supporting Microsoft WindowsMobile Software.

Referring now to FIG. 1D, together the servers 106 comprise a farm 38 orserver farm, where each server 106 can include a network-side interface202 and a farm-side interface 204. The network-side interface 202 can bein communication with one or more clients 102 or a network 104. Thenetwork 104 can be a WAN, LAN, or any other embodiment of a network suchthose networks described above.

Each server 106 has a farm-side interface 204 connected with one or morefarm-side interface(s) 204 of other servers 106 in the farm 38. In oneembodiment, each farm-side interface 204 is interconnected to otherfarm-side interfaces 204 such that the servers 106 within the farm 38may communicate with one another. On each server 106, the farm-sideinterface 204 communicates with the network-side interface 202. Thefarm-side interfaces 204 can also communicate (designated by arrows 220)with a persistent store 230 and, in some embodiments, with a dynamicstore 240. The combination of servers 106, the persistent store 230, andthe dynamic store 240, when provided, are collectively referred to as afarm 38. In some embodiments, a server 106 communicates with thepersistent store 230 and other servers 106′ communicate with the server106 to access information stored in the persistent store.

The persistent store 230 may be physically implemented on a disk, diskfarm, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), writeable compactdisc, or any other device that allows data to be read and written andthat maintains written data if power is removed from the storage device.A single physical device may provide storage for a plurality ofpersistent stores, i.e., a single physical device may be used to providethe persistent store 230 for more than one farm 38. The persistent store230 maintains static data associated with each server 106 in farm 38 andglobal data used by all servers 106 within the farm 38. In oneembodiment, the persistent store 230 may maintain the server data in aLightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) data model. In otherembodiments, the persistent store 230 stores server data in anODBC-compliant database. For the purposes of this description, the term“static data” refers to data that does not change frequently, i.e., datathat changes only on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, or data thatnever changes. Each server uses a persistent storage subsystem to readdata from and write data to the persistent store 230.

The data stored by the persistent store 230 may be replicated forreliability purposes either physically or logically. For example,physical redundancy may be provided using a set of redundant, mirroreddisks, each providing a copy of the data. In other embodiments, thedatabase itself may be replicated using standard database techniques toprovide multiple copies of the database. In further embodiments, bothphysical and logical replication may be used concurrently.

The dynamic store 240 (i.e., the collection of all record tables) can beembodied in various ways. In one embodiment, the dynamic store 240 iscentralized; that is, all runtime data are stored in the memory of oneserver 106 in the farm 38. That server operates as a master network nodewith which all other servers 106 in the farm 38 communicate when seekingaccess to that runtime data. In another embodiment, each server 106 inthe farm 38 keeps a full copy of the dynamic store 240. Here, eachserver 106 communicates with every other server 106 to keep its copy ofthe dynamic store 240 up to date.

In another embodiment, each server 106 maintains its own runtime dataand communicates with other servers 106 when seeking to obtain runtimedata from them. Thus, for example, a server 106 attempting to find anapplication program requested by the client 102 may communicate directlywith every other server 106 in the farm 38 to find one or more servershosting the requested application.

For farms 38 having a large number of servers 106, the network trafficproduced by these embodiments can become heavy. One embodimentalleviates heavy network traffic by designating a subset of the servers106 in a farm 38, typically two or more, as “collector points.”Generally, a collector point is a server that collects run-time data.Each collector point stores runtime data collected from certain otherservers 106 in the farm 38. Each server 106 in the farm 38 is capable ofoperating as, and consequently is capable of being designated as, acollector point. In one embodiment, each collector point stores a copyof the entire dynamic store 240. In another embodiment, each collectorpoint stores a portion of the dynamic store 240, i.e., it maintainsruntime data of a particular data type. The type of data stored by aserver 106 may be predetermined according to one or more criteria. Forexample, servers 106 may store different types of data based on theirboot order. Alternatively, the type of data stored by a server 106 maybe configured by an administrator using an administration tool (NotShown.) In these embodiments, the dynamic store 240 is distributedamongst two or more servers 106 in the farm 38.

Servers 106 not designated as collector points know the servers 106 in afarm 38 that are designated as collector points. A server 180 notdesignated as a collector point may communicate with a particularcollector point when delivering and requesting runtime data.Consequently, collector points lighten network traffic because eachserver 106 in the farm 38 communicates with a single collector pointserver 106, rather than with every other server 106, when seeking toaccess the runtime data.

Each server 106 can operate as a collector point for more than one typeof data. For example, server 106″ can operate as a collector point forlicensing information and for loading information. In these embodiments,each collector point may amass a different type of run-time data. Forexample, to illustrate this case, the server 106″′ can collect licensinginformation, while the server 106″ collects loading information.

In some embodiments, each collector point stores data that is sharedbetween all servers 106 in a farm 38. In these embodiments, eachcollector point of a particular type of data exchanges the datacollected by that collector point with every other collector point forthat type of data in the farm 38. Thus, upon completion of the exchangeof such data, each collector point 106″ and 106 possesses the same data.Also in these embodiments, each collector point 106 and 106″ also keepsevery other collector point abreast of any updates to the runtime data.

Browsing enables a client 102 to view farms 38, servers 106, andapplications in the farms 38 and to access available information such assessions throughout the farm 38. Each server 106 includes an ICAbrowsing subsystem 260 to provide the client 102 with browsingcapability. After the client 102 establishes a connection with the ICAbrowser subsystem 260 of any of the servers 106, that browser subsystemsupports a variety of client requests. Such client requests include: (1)enumerating names of servers in the farm, (2) enumerating names ofapplications published in the farm, (3) resolving a server name and/orapplication name to a server address that is useful the client 102. TheICA browser subsystem 260 also supports requests made by clients 10running a program neighborhood application that provides the client 102,upon request, with a view of those applications within the farm 38 forwhich the user is authorized. The ICA browser subsystem 260 forwards allof the above-mentioned client requests to the appropriate subsystem inthe server 106.

In one embodiment, each server 106 in the farm 38 that has a programneighborhood subsystem 270 can provide the user of a client 102 with aview of applications within the farm 38. The program neighborhoodsubsystem 270 may limit the view to those applications for which theuser of the client 102 has authorization to access. Typically, thisprogram neighborhood service presents the applications to the user as alist or a group of icons.

The functionality provided by the program neighborhood subsystem 270 canbe available to two types of clients, (1) program neighborhood-enabledclients that can access the functionality directly from a clientdesktop, and (2) non-program neighborhood-enabled clients (e.g., legacyclients) that can access the functionality by running a programneighborhood-enabled desktop on the server.

Communication between a program neighborhood-enabled client and theprogram neighborhood subsystem 270 may occur over a dedicated virtualchannel that is established on top of an ICA virtual channel. In otherembodiments, the communication occurs using an XML service. In one ofthese embodiments, the program neighborhood-enabled client communicateswith an XML subsystem, such as the XML service 516 described inconnection with FIG. 6 below, providing program neighborhoodfunctionality on a server 106.

In one embodiment, the program neighborhood-enabled client does not havea connection with the server with a program neighborhood subsystem 270.For this embodiment, the client 102 sends a request to the ICA browsersubsystem 260 to establish an ICA connection to the server 106 in orderto identify applications available to the client 102. The client 102then runs a client-side dialog that acquires the credentials of a user.The credentials are received by the ICA browser subsystem 260 and sentto the program neighborhood subsystem 270. In one embodiment, theprogram neighborhood subsystem 270 sends the credentials to a usermanagement subsystem for authentication. The user management subsystemmay return a set of distinguished names representing the list ofaccounts to which the user belongs. Upon authentication, the programneighborhood subsystem 270 establishes the program neighborhood virtualchannel. This channel remains open until the application filtering iscomplete.

The program neighborhood subsystem 270 then requests the programneighborhood information from the common application subsystem 524associated with those accounts. The common application subsystem 524obtains the program neighborhood information from the persistent store230. On receiving the program neighborhood information, the programneighborhood subsystem 270 formats and returns the program neighborhoodinformation to the client over the program neighborhood virtual channel.Then the partial ICA connection is closed.

For another example in which the program neighborhood-enabled clientestablishes a partial ICA connection with a server, consider the user ofthe client 102 who selects a farm 38. The selection of the farm 38 sendsa request from the client 102 to the ICA browser subsystem 260 toestablish an ICA connection with one of the servers 106 in the selectedfarm 38. The ICA browser subsystem 260 sends the request to the programneighborhood subsystem 270, which selects a server 106 in the farm 38.Address information associated with the server 106 is identified andreturned to the client 102 by way of the ICA browser subsystem 260. Theclient 102 can then subsequently connect to the server 106 correspondingto the received address information.

In another embodiment, the program neighborhood-enabled client 102establishes an ICA connection upon which the programneighborhood-virtual channel is established and remains open for as longas the ICA connection persists. Over this program neighborhood virtualchannel, the program neighborhood subsystem 270 pushes programneighborhood information updates to the client 102. To obtain updates,the program neighborhood subsystem 270 subscribes to events from thecommon application subsystem 524 to allow the program neighborhoodsubsystem 270 to detect changes to published applications.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an embodiment of a system 200for per-pixel alpha blending of a window image and a portion of abackground image. In brief overview, the system 200 can include acomputing machine 100, a window manager 211, a rendering agent 231, andan alpha blender 221. The computing machine 100 may be of any type ofcomputing device as described herein. The window manager 211, executingon the computing machine 100, can communicate with the rendering agent231 which further communicates with the alpha blender 221 and therendering agent 231 may execute on the same computing machine 100.

Referring now to FIG. 2 in more detail, the computing machine 100 can beany computing machine 100. In some embodiments, the computing machine100 can be any computing machine 100 described herein. The computingmachine 100 can comprise a processor and a memory, and in someembodiments can execute a window manager 211, a rendering agent 231 andan alpha blender 221.

The window manager 211, in some embodiments, controls the placement andappearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical userinterface (GUI.) In one embodiment, the window manager 211 draws thedesktop, and communicates with the rendering agent 231, a graphicalprocessing unit (Not Shown) and any other applications or componentsused to render graphics, windows, text and other objects displayed onthe desktop. A window manager 211 can carry out for the user variousoperations pertaining to windows in a desktop environment, such asopening, closing, minimizing, maximizing, resizing and moving windows. Awindow manager 211 can also track which windows are running and windowdecorations in a desktop environment. Window decorations provided by awindow manager 211 generally improve the usability of a window desktopenvironment by providing features such as a title bar for each runningwindow and a minimal border around the window. The border may containbuttons to perform functionality pertaining to the window, such asminimizing, maximizing and closing the window.

Generally, a windowing environment of a computing machine 100 can, insome embodiments, provide functionality for grouping and overlayingobjects on a display. A plurality of windows may also overlay each otherin a z-ordering system. The overlay portion of at least one object orwindow can be clipped on the display, when obscured by another object orwindow “above” it in the z-ordering system. In some embodiments, thewindow manager 211 can be a stacking window manager that allows windowsto overlap by drawing them in a specific order, one at a time. Thestacking window manager renders an image of each window directly overthe desktop and any other windows that may already have been drawn.Generally, the process usually begins with the desktop and each windowand any child windows are drawn from back to front until the foregroundwindow is drawn.

In some embodiments, the window manager 211 can be a tiling windowmanager that organizes the screen into mutually non-overlapping windows.In other embodiments, the window manager 211 is a hybrid of thedifferent types of window managers described herein.

In still other embodiments, the window manager 211 can be a compositingwindow manager that draws windows and their borders. A compositingwindow manager provides that each program outputs to a separate andindependent buffer, or other temporary location within the computingdevice 100. The data in the buffer can then be manipulated prior tobeing displayed by the computing device 100. The output of the multiplebuffers is then processed and combined by the compositing window manageronto a common desktop, resulting in the windows behaving as independentobjects and allowing overlapping of the objects. The compositing windowsmanager, in some embodiments, provides advanced visual effects, such astransparency, fading, scaling, bending, duplicating, contorting,shuffling, and redirecting applications.

A window manager 211, in many embodiments, is a program, application,agent, client or software executing on a computing machine 100. Thewindow manager 211 can mange or monitor window messages, and in someembodiments, can intercept window messages. In still another embodiment,the window manager 211 monitors a message queue that stores a list orarray of messages generated by any one of the following: an applicationexecuting within a window; a process executing within a window; theoperating system in response to actions performed by a user orapplication; or a graphical data interface.

Windows messages, in some embodiments, are system calls to the operatingsystem. In other embodiments, window messages are generated when awindow is moved, resized, created, killed, or otherwise manipulated by auser, an application, another object, or an operating system. In anotherembodiment, some of the window messages are generated when a useractivates an object in the WINDOWS environment, such as clicking on abutton with a pointing device. In still another embodiment, some of thewindow messages are generated when any graphical data on the screenchanges. In one embodiment, one of the window messages includes acommand to erase graphical data associated with an object. In anotherembodiment, one of the window messages includes a command to loadgraphical data associated with an object, for example, to populate ascreen region associated with a window with a bitmap image. In otherembodiments, one of the window messages can prompt the window manager211 to take any of the actions described below.

Still referring to FIG. 2, in one embodiment the window manager 211communicates with an alpha blender 221 executing on the computingmachine 100. The alpha blender 221 can execute within a rendering agent231 or can execute outside of the rendering agent 231 on the computingmachine 100. The alpha blender 221 can be a part of the rendering agent231, yet in other embodiments the alpha blender 221 may execute on adifferent computing machine than the rendering agent 231. In someembodiments, the alpha blender 221 communicates with the rendering agent231 such that the alpha blender 221 forwards display data and alphablended images to the rendering agent 231 for rendering and display. Insome embodiments, the alpha blender 221 is implemented in hardware,while in other embodiments the alpha blender 221 is a program,application, client or agent executing on the computing machine 100 by aprocessor within the computing machine 100. In some embodiments, thealpha blender 221 is implemented using a combination of software andhardware.

The alpha blender 221 communicates with the window manager 211 to obtainthe location and size of a window. Using the information received fromthe window manager 211, the alpha blender 221 generates an image of thewindow. If the window spans multiple displays, multiple window imagesare generated for each portion of the window shown on a differentdisplay. The alpha blender 221 also generates a background image of thedesktop environment displayed beneath the window. In some embodiments,the background image may include only the desktop, including any icons,docks, task bars, program launchers, and wallpaper. In otherembodiments, the background image may include the desktop and anotherwindow. In still other embodiments, the background image may include thedesktop and multiple windows. When multiple displays are used, the alphablender 221 generates multiple background images, where a backgroundimage is generated for each display a portion of the window is shown.

Upon generating images of the window to-be-alpha-blended and thebackground underneath the window, the alpha blender 221 can use standardalpha blending techniques, such as those discussed above, to blend thewindow image and the background image. In some embodiments, the windowimage is sub-divided into multiple portions, and in other embodimentsthe background image is sub-divided into multiple portions. The portionsof the background image, in some embodiments, can correspond to theportions of the window image. The alpha blender 221, in one embodiment,can determine which portions of the window image correspond to thesub-divided portions of the background image and then alpha blends thosematching portions together. The size of the portion of the window imageand the portion of the background image that are alpha blended togetherby the alpha blender 221, in some embodiments is a predetermined sizethat can be designated by an application, a user, an administrator,configuration settings of the alpha blender 221, the alpha blender 221,the rendering agent 231, or the system 200.

The rendering agent 231, in some embodiments, receives the alpha blendedimage comprised of a portion of the window image and a portion of thebackground image, and renders a display. In one embodiment, therendering agent 231 generates display data and forwards the data towindow manager 211 which displays the display data on the desktop. Insome embodiments, the rendering agent 231 can be an application,program, agent, client or other set of executable instructions executedby the computing machine 100. In other embodiments, the rendering agent231 can be a hardware device such as a graphical processing unit. Instill other embodiments, the rendering agent 231 can be a combination ofhardware and executable instructions.

Referring now to FIG. 3, illustrated is a block diagram that depicts anembodiment of a per-pixel alpha-blending of a window image 310 and aportion of a background image 330. In brief overview, the diagramincludes a background image 340 under a window image 310, and theportion of the background image 330 used during to alpha blend. Theportion 320 of the window image that is alpha blended to the portion ofthe background image 330 is also depicted.

In one embodiment, the window manager 211 extracts at least a portion ofthe background image 330 from the background image 340 stored in astorage component 128 of the computing machine 100. Extraction of theportion of the background image 330 can include generating a snapshot ofthe background, and selecting a portion of the resulting image. Asnapshot, in some embodiments, can be a picture, image capture or screenshot of a display, background or desktop. The resulting image, in someembodiments, can comprise a graphical representation of the objectsdisplayed on the desktop. These objects can include: a window; adesktop; a mouse pointer; or any other object or window displayed on thedesktop. In some embodiments, the window manager 211 can extract aportion of the background image, while in other embodiments the alphablender 221 can extract a portion of the background image. Thebackground image can be in any image format such as JPEG, GIF, TIFF orBMP.

The window manager 211, in some embodiments, can receive a portion ofthe background image 330 from a frame buffer containing the backgroundimage 340. In still another embodiment, the window manager 211 extractsthe portion of the background image 330 by removing graphical dataassociated with the window image 310 to temporarily expose the desktopgraphical data in the identified screen region and then captures thedesktop graphical data in the identified screen region. In still evenanother embodiment, the capturing mechanism leverages a “Print Screen”handler provided in a WINDOWS environment to capture an image of thebackground.

The window manager 211, in some embodiments, stretches the plurality ofbitmap images according to the size of the window image 310. In anotherembodiment, the stretching of the plurality of bitmap images is a manualprocess. In still another embodiment, the window manager 211 generates awindow image 310 from the plurality of bitmap images. In still anotherembodiment, the window manager 211 generates a third image comprisingthe second image 310 alpha-blended with the first image 330. In yetanother embodiment, the window manager 211 performs at least one of thefunctions described above through at least one application programminginterface (API) provided by an operating system or an application.

In one embodiment, the background image 340 may span the entire screendisplay, or may be a desktop wallpaper or a tiled image. In still otherembodiments, the background image 340 can span an entire display, whichin some embodiments can include one or more display screens, e.g. adual, triple or quadruple screen display. In some embodiments, thedesktop image 340 can be an expanded version of an image file providedby an operating system, an application, or a user. In some of theseembodiments, some of the imported images may be vector imagesrepresented by mathematical description rather than bitmaps. In oneembodiment, the imported image or images forming the desktop image 340may be stored as separate files. In another embodiment, the importedimage or images forming the desktop may be stored in their own nativeimage file formats. In still another embodiment, the desktop image 340is not a single bitmap image but assembled on screen using the importedimages.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a diagram illustrates an embodiment of theper-pixel alpha blending system. In brief overview, the illustrationincludes a desktop environment 400 executing on a computing machine 100.The desktop environment 400 includes various desktop icons and a desktopwallpaper. A window image 310 is generated by the alpha blender 221capturing the window 410 and an image of a portion of the background 320is generated by capturing the desktop environment 400. The alpha blender221 alpha blends the images and a resulting alpha blended image 320 isgenerated. The resulting alpha blended image 320 is rendered to thedisplay by the rendering agent 231 described herein.

Included in the background image generated by either the window manager211 or the alpha blender 221, are the images displayed on the desktop.Thus, when the alpha blender alpha blends the portion of the backgroundimage to an image of the window 410, what results is the alpha blendedimage 320. Alpha blending can enhance the transparency of certainaspects of an image. Thus, when at least a portion of the image of thewindow 410 is alpha blended with the background image 330, what mayresult is a semi-transparent image 320 that comprises shading and/orsmooth, rounded corners. This image 320 can be displayed within thewindow to mask the sharp contrast between the window edge and thedesktop.

Illustrated in FIG. 5 is an embodiment of a method 500 for per-pixelalpha blending. The method 500 includes first determining the locationand size of a window (Step 510). Then, once the location and size of awindow are determined, the information is transmitted (Step 515). Thealpha blender receives the location and size of the window (Step 520)and uses the information to create an image or images of the window(Step 525). Once the creation of the window image 310 is complete, animage of at least a portion of the background 330 is also created (Step530). The images are alpha-blended to generate a third alpha-blendedimage 320 (Step 535). Then, the alpha-blended image 320 is transmittedto the rendering agent (Step 540), that then renders the third image 320to a display (Step 545).

In one embodiment, alpha-blending of a pixel painted in the backgroundarea to the desktop is triggered, for example, by a movement of thewindow on the screen. In another embodiment, the movement may generateat least one window message received by the window manager 211. In stillanother embodiment, responsive to the at least one window messagereceived, the window image 310 described above is generated. In stilleven another embodiment, the window manager 211 also generates a secondimage 340, representing desktop graphical data associated with thescreen region 400. In yet another embodiment, the window manager 211then instructs the graphics card to alpha-blend the first image 310 withthe second image 340 to generate a third image 320 and to display thethird image 320. When alpha-blending occurs, images may be alpha blendedaccording to the methods described in FIG. 5.

Further referring to FIG. 5, and in more detail, the window manager 211can first determine the location and size of a window displayed on adesktop (Step 510). In some embodiments, the location and size of awindow can be determined by obtaining the x-coordinates andy-coordinates of the origin of the window and the length of the sides ofthe window. The origin of the window, in some embodiments, can bedefined by the operating system as the upper left corner of the window.In other embodiments, the operating system can define the origin as thelower left corner of the window, the center of the window, or any otherlocation within the window. The length of the sides of the windows areobtained as x-coordinates and y-coordinates and using these measurementstogether with the origin of the window, the window manager 211 cancalculate the size and location of the window. In some embodiments, thewindow manager 211 can receive a message from the operating system thatincludes the location and size of the window. In this embodiment, thewindow manager 211 would no longer need to calculate the size andposition of the window.

In another embodiment, the window manager 211 determines the locationand size of the window by obtaining the x-coordinates and y-coordinatesof the points representing the two opposing corners in a window, such asthe upper-left corner and lower-right corner or upper-right corner andlower-left corner of the window. The window manager 211 can thencalculate the location and size of the window using the obtainedcoordinates. In still another embodiment, the window manager 211determines the location and size of the window by obtaining four values:minimum X value, minimum Y value, maximum X value, and maximum Y value.The minimum X value is the value representing the smaller x-coordinatevalue of the window while the maximum X value is the value representingthe greater x-coordinate value of the window. The minimum Y value is thevalue representing the smaller y-coordinate value of the window whilethe maximum Y value is the value representing the greater y-coordinatevalue of the window. The window manager 211 can use the obtained valuesto determine the size and location of the window.

In embodiments where a window spans multiple displays, desktops ordisplay devices, the window manager 211 determines the size of theportion of the window shown on each display and obtains the size andlocation of the portion of the window for that display. Upon makingthese determinations, the window manager 211 can determine an overallwindow size and location relative to each display.

Upon obtaining both the size and location of the window, the windowmanger 211 can then transmit this information (Step 515) to the alphablender 221. In some embodiments, the window manager 211 can transmitthe window size and the window location in response to a request issuedby the alpha blender 221. This request or message may instruct thewindow manager 211 to send the alpha blender 221 a message containingthe size and location of the window. In yet another embodiment, thewindow manager 211 can store the window size and location information ina storage repository on the computing machine 100. Thus, when the alphablender 221 requires the window location and size information, the alphablender 221 can retrieve such information from the storage repository.

Once the alpha blender 221 either receives the location and size of thewindow (Step 520) or retrieves this information from memory or a storagerepository, the alpha blender 221 can generate or create one or moreimages of the window (Step 525). In one embodiment, the alpha blender221 can generate a snapshot of the entire desktop including the window.Upon generating the desktop snapshot, the alpha blender 221 can then usethe window's size and location to crop the snapshot so that what remainsis an image of the window. In another embodiment, the alpha blender 221can intercept draw commands issued to a desktop renderer and, usingcoordinates associated with at least a portion of the draw commands, thealpha blender 221 can group or temporarily store draw commands for theportion of the screen corresponding to the location of the window. Uponselecting these particular draw commands, the alpha blender 221 can sendthe draw commands to a rendering agent so that the rendering agent cangenerate an image of the window using the draw commands. In someembodiments, the alpha blender 221 can create a single image of thewindow. In other embodiments, the alpha blender 221 can create multipleimages that when combined, form an aggregate image of the entire window.In embodiments where the window spans multiple displays, the alphablender 221 can generate at least an image for each portion of thewindow visible in each display. For example, if the window spans twodisplays, a first image of the window is created for the portion of thewindow displayed in the first display, and a second image of the windowis created for the portion of the window displayed in the seconddisplay.

Once the alpha blender 221 completes generating images representative ofthe window, the alpha blender then proceeds to create a background image330 (Step 530) of the background behind the window. As statedpreviously, this background can include a desktop, another window, orother objects. In one embodiment, the alpha blender 221 can use any ofthe above-described methods to generate an image of the background.These methods can include generating a snapshot of the entire desktopand cropping the image to generate an image of the backgroundimmediately behind the window; generating a snapshot of just thebackground immediately behind the window; intercepting the draw commandsfor each element displayed in the background and permitting a renderingagent to render only those commands corresponding to an area of thebackground immediately behind the window. The area or image immediatelybehind the window can be some area surrounding the window by apredetermined amount. For example, the background area may comprise aborder extending approximately 100 pixels from the edge of the window,or the background area may be the same shape as the window but may havedimensions that are 20% larger than the window. In still otherembodiments, the alpha blender 221 may select a random sized area behindthe window. In at least one embodiment, the alpha blender 221 creates asingle image of the background, and crops the single image to generatean image of only a portion of the background. In embodiments where thewindow spans multiple displays, the alpha blender 221 can generate atleast one image for the portion of the window visible in each display.

Upon generating the background image, the alpha blender 221 can thenblend the image of the window with the background image to generate athird image 320 (Step 535). The alpha blender 221 can use any alphablending methods or algorithms to blend the two images. In someembodiments, the alpha blender 221 can use any of the alpha blendingmethods described herein.

The alpha blender 221 then transmits the third image to the renderingagent 231 for rendering (Step 540), and the rendered third image isdisplayed in the window (Step 545). In some embodiments, the third imageis displayed such that it masks the edge of the drawn window. This canbe accomplished by constructing a window that includes an image orgraphic placed within the window such that when the window is displayed,the image is rendered to the display rather than the true window edge.In effect, the third alpha blended image 320 can be used to replace atleast a portion of the displayed window. This third image 320 maycomprise a smoother, anti-aliased image that gives the window edges theappearance of a rounded edge. In one embodiments of the method 500, thethird image 320 can be an edge of a window. In other embodiments, thethird image 320 can be a button displayed within the window. In stillother embodiments, the third image 320 can comprise a single pixel,while in other embodiments the third image 320 can comprise a group ofpixels. A group of pixels, in some embodiments, can include pixelsadjacent to one another and pixels that are not adjacent to one another.

In one embodiment, the method 500 can further include a window manager211 or alpha blender 221 that can identify a first pixel in the windowimage. In some embodiments, this first pixel can be a first alphachannel value. An alpha channel value, in some embodiments, is a valuethat represents the color of a particular pixel in an image. In oneembodiment, an alpha channel value is also used to represent thetransparency or opacity of a particular pixel. For example, a pixelhaving an alpha channel value of (0.0, 0.5, 0.0, 1) is a green pixelthat is fully opaque. In this channel value, the first three values,i.e. 0.0, 0.5, 0.0, identifies the RGB (Red Green Blue) values of thepixel which in this alpha channel value, represents the color green. Thelast value, i.e. 1, represents the opacity or transparency of the pixel.A value of 0 is a fully transparent pixel, while a value of 1 is a fullyopaque pixel. The window manager 211 or alpha blender 221 can thenidentify a second pixel in a section of the background image anddetermine the second alpha channel value for that second pixel. Thus,the alpha channel value, in some embodiments, is a numeric value orgroup of numeric values that identifies both the color of a pixel andthe opacity or transparency of the pixel. The alpha blender 221 can usemultiple alpha channel values to determine which color pixel to displayand whether the transparency or opacity level of that pixel.

In one embodiment, once both the first and second alpha channel valueshave been determined, a third alpha channel value is calculated usingthe first and second alpha channel values. In one embodiment, the thirdalpha channel value is calculated using any type of alpha blendingalgorithm. In another embodiment, the third alpha channel value iscalculated using the alpha blending algorithm(s) described herein. Thethird alpha channel value, in some embodiments, is used in the thirdimage 320 in lieu of the first alpha channel value or the second alphachannel value.

The methods and systems described herein may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The article of manufacture may be a floppy disk, a harddisk, a compact disc, a digital versatile disc, a flash memory card, aPROM, a RAM, a ROM, or a magnetic tape. In general, thecomputer-readable programs may be implemented in any programminglanguage. Some examples of languages that can be used include C, C++,C#, or JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in one or morearticles of manufacture as object code.

While the present disclosure has described multiple embodiments ofsystems and methods for launching an application into an existingisolation environment, it should be understood by those skilled in theart that various changes in form and detail may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for alpha-blending sections of a windowwith sections of a background region, the method comprising: obtaining,by a window manager executing on a computing machine, coordinates of awindow located over a background region; capturing, by an alpha-blenderexecuting on the computing machine, an image of the background region,having a size derived from the obtained window coordinates, the windowoverlapping at least a portion of the captured background region image;alpha-blending, by the alpha-blender, an image of the window with asection of the background region image to generate a third image; anddisplaying, by a rendering agent executing on the computing machine, thethird image within the window.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereincapturing the background region image further comprises capturing animage of the background region where the window wholly overlaps thebackground region image.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingcapturing, by the alpha-blender, an image of the window.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein capturing the image of the background region furthercomprises capturing the image of the background region comprising adesktop.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the image of thebackground region further comprises capturing an image of the backgroundregion comprising at least a second window.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein capturing the background region image further comprisescapturing an image of the background region, the background region imagehaving a location determined using the obtained window coordinates. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein alpha-blending an image of the windowfurther comprises alpha-blending an image of a portion of the window. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein alpha-blending further comprises:determining a first pixel in the window image comprises a first alphachannel value; determining a second pixel in the section of thebackground image comprises a second alpha channel value, the first alphachannel value different than the second alpha channel value; calculatinga third alpha channel value using the first alpha channel value and thesecond alpha channel value; and including the third alpha channel valuein the generated third image.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereindisplaying the third image further comprises displaying the third imagewithin a background of the window.
 10. A system for alpha-blendingsections of a window with sections of a background region, the systemcomprising: a computing machine comprising a processor and memory; awindow manager executing on a computing machine to obtain coordinates ofa window located over a background region; an alpha-blender executing onthe computing machine to capture an image of the background regionhaving a size derived from the obtained window coordinates, the windowoverlapping at least a portion of the captured background region image,and alpha-blend an image of the window with a section of the backgroundregion image to generate a third image; and a rendering agent executingon the computing machine to display the third image within the window.11. The system of claim 10, wherein the alpha-blender captures an imageof the background region where the window wholly overlaps the backgroundregion image.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the alpha-blendercaptures an image of the window.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein thealpha-blender captures an image of the background region comprising adesktop.
 14. The system of claim 10, wherein the alpha-blender capturesan image of the background region comprising at least a second window.15. The system of claim 10, wherein the background region image has alocation determined using the obtained window coordinates.
 16. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the alpha-blender alpha-blends an image of aportion of the window.
 17. The system of claim 10, wherein thealpha-blender: determines a first pixel in the window image comprises afirst alpha channel value; determines a second pixel in the section ofthe background image comprises a second alpha channel value, the firstalpha channel value different than the second alpha channel value;calculates a third alpha channel value using the first alpha channelvalue and the second alpha channel value; and includes the third alphachannel value in the generated third image.
 18. The system of claim 10,wherein the rendering agent displays the third image within a backgroundof the window.